Educational Science

Limb loss for a salamander is nothing to get up in arms about—they just re-grow a new one. But how? One molecule could be behind their remarkable limb-sprouting ability, according to a new study that could also grow the field of human regenerative medicine. The ability to conjure up an...

Endangered Tadpoles' Mission: Help Restore Toad Species

Thousands of tadpoles are on a journey from Cleveland to Puerto Rico as part of an effort to save their critically endangered species. The traveling tadpoles are Puerto Rican crested toads, and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is part of the Species Survival Plan that works to breed the toads and...

A hybrid of two salamander varieties—one of which is an endangered species—is outshining both if its slimy parents' purebred offspring in the game of life. Breeding between endangered California tiger salamanders and the invasive barred salamanders, commonly used as fishing bait and introduced decades ago, has created swarms of new...

Bizarre Sighting: Cane Toad Eating a Bat?

What's the matter, bat got your tongue? A park ranger in northwest Peru got a surprise when he encountered a toad with something in its mouth. This something happened to be a bat. Ranger Yufani Olaya snapped a photograph of the bat-chomping toad in the Cerros de Amotape National Park,...

Everyone Agreed: Cane Toads Would Be a Winner for Australia (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. When cane toads were released in Australia in 1935, they were the latest innovation in pest control, backed by a level of consensus support that a scientist could only dream...

'Lost' Rainbow Toad Rediscovered After 87 Years

After months of scouring remote forests in Borneo, researchers spotted three rainbow toads up a tree, snapping the first-ever photographs of this elusive amphibian species that hadn't been seen for 87 years, scientists announced today (July 13). Last seen in 1924, the Bornean rainbow toad (Ansonia latidisca) had been listed...

Japan Gifts Giant Salamanders to U.S. National Zoo

A gift from Japan to the United States has brought Japanese giant salamanders to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., to be part of a new long-term breeding program in the United States that may play an important role in saving amphibians around the globe. Japanese giant salamanders...

Elusive ‘Warm Valley’ Toad Discovered in Peruvian Andes

A new species of toad has been discovered in the “warm valleys” of the Peruvian Andes. The new species, called Rhinella Yunga, is distinct from its related species by the absence of a tympanic membrane, a round organ that functions as an eardrum. “Yunga” is used by locals to describe...

It's Alive! Extinct Toad Lives on in Lab

An extremely rare, toad that's extinct in the wild is thriving in a lab environment, but researchers are still trying to determine whether it's safe to reintroduce the species into the wild. A population of the tiny toads was first found in 1996 living near the bottom of a waterfall...